Lord Henry Wotton is one of the chief characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. He is a young aristocrat who seeks to bring himself attention by an apparent careless attitude and wit. His flippant tongue drips with hedonic philosophy which he dolls out for the purpose of sensation alone. However, amongst … Continue reading A Particle of Truth Spoken by Lord Henry Wotton
Category: Story
Rereading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Part 4: The Return of the King (Raw Reflections)
It appears that The Return of the King is the hardest book in the trilogy for me to put down or, more accurately, the hardest for me to resist picking up. This may be because of the many day-spring moments in The Return of the King: flashes of incredible beauty...
Rereading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Part 3: The Two Towers (Raw Reflections)
Do you remember your first reading of The Lord of the Rings? What was your reaction when you discovered Gandalf was not dead, as you and the members of the Company believed, but fully alive? ...
Rereading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Part 2: The Fellowship of the Ring (Raw Reflections)
The book begins in Hobbiton with much the same lively writing style found in The Hobbit. You can tell that neither Tolkien nor the Hobbits realise the dark roads they will travel in this sequel...
Rereading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Part 1: The Hobbit (Raw Reflections)
Hello, my friends, This fall I have been re-treading the paths of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. My brother is taking a Socratic discussion1 course on these works and I leapt at the opportunity to reread them. As I finish each book, I will share with you the thoughts that come to … Continue reading Rereading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Part 1: The Hobbit (Raw Reflections)
The Peril of Elf-Magic to Mortal Man
In an essay on Smith of Wootton Major, J.R.R. Tolkien speaks of the reluctance of the Faery folk to allow Men use of their power (or magic). He writes this: ‘The love of Faery is the love of love: a relationship towards all things, animate and inanimate, which includes love and respect, and removes or … Continue reading The Peril of Elf-Magic to Mortal Man
Beowulf: Seamus Heaney vs. J.R.R. Tolkien
Beowulf was my first major introduction to original myth. The translation I read was a bilingual edition by Seamus Heaney which I had purchased at the gift shop in the British Library in London, England. Some years later I also read J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation. I now lay before you, briefly, my reflections on the two … Continue reading Beowulf: Seamus Heaney vs. J.R.R. Tolkien
